1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the submission of search queries and other types of form data to World Wide Web sites, and more particularly, to facilitating the resubmission of previously submitted form data to related web sites.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet has become a convenient and popular medium for the exchange of information and the transacting of commerce. An Internet user has access to a vast number of web sites on the World Wide Web and this number is increasing at a rapid pace. It is frequently becoming the case that for any one web site, there exist numerous related web sites that offer the same or similar products, services, or information.
In many cases, in order to provide a response to the user, a number of related web sites also request the same or similar information through the use of forms. For example, Internet search engines such as AltaVista, Infoseek, and HotBot each request a search query from a user in order to process a search. The user submits an HTML form containing data, such as a query, to a first of the related web sites and the web site returns a results page. It may be the case that, after receiving the results page, the user is not satisfied with the results provided by the first web site and would like to re-submit the data, e.g. the query, to a related web site.
In order to submit the same query or other data to a related web site, the user typically has to take at least three steps. First, the user has to locate a related web site, and in some cases, a page of that site that contains a corresponding form. If the user does not have the appropriate related web page bookmarked, this step may additionally involve going to a search engine to find the related web site. Second, the user has to reenter into the form the data already submitted to the first web site. The user may have to remember or write down the originally submitted data or use a cut and paste operation re-enter the data. Finally, the user submits the related form and receives another results page.
The present invention provides a client program that operates in conjunction with a metadata server to capture form data submitted to a web site, and to resubmit the form data to one or more related web sites. The client program runs on a user computer in conjunction with or as a native component of a web browser. In a preferred embodiment, the system allows users to resubmit search queries to search engines of related web sites.
One specific application of the invention involves resubmitting a product-related query to the search engines of related merchant web sites. For example, when a user submits a query to the eToys web site, the user may be presented the option to submit the same query to the Toys-R-Us web site. The identities of the related web sites, and/or the types of searches performed on such web sites, may optionally be dependent upon the category (e.g., books, toys, auctions, etc.) of the initial search performed by the user.
In a preferred embodiment, the client program accesses the metadata server to retrieve metadata (related links, etc.) for the web site and/or web page currently being viewed, and displays some or all of the metadata in a special browser frame or window. When the user accesses a search page for which one or more related searches have been defined by the metadata server, the client program also retrieves from the metadata server a set of rules for extracting the query from an HTTP request (Get or Post method). Alternatively, the client program may obtain the query by direct interaction with the web browser. The client program also retrieves instructions for formulating HTTP requests for submitting then query to each of a set of identified related web sites. In one embodiment, the user is presented one or more links (one for each related search) that can be selected to initiate the related search. In another embodiment, the user is also presented an option to modify the query before initiating a related search. The invention may also be used to extract and resubmit other types of form data, such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers and shipping addresses.
In an alternative, server side embodiment, the tasks of extracting the form data from the HTTP request and formulating the links/HTTP requests for resubmitting such data are performed in-whole or in-part by the metadata server. Another variation involves automatically resubmitting the query or other form data to the related site(s) without first prompting the user.